Other famous people are instantly identified by their noteworthy body parts. Dolly Parton has those o’er flowing ta tas. You’d recognize Angelina Jolie’s lips from 100 paces. Ditto Prince Charles’ ears. And Jay Leon’s outsized chin is hard to miss.

Nothing wrong with having something that makes you unforgettable. Or easily recognizable. Or at least remotely different from the rest of the world.

Larry King doesn’t wear those signature suspenders just to keep his pants up. Ozzy Osbourne long ago could have switched from those circular specs to contact lenses. And to make sure you don’t ignore her, Paris Hilton doesn’t travel far without one of her kennel of pink-clad Chihuahuas tucked under her arm.

Some of us spend a lifetime wondering why we seem to be so forgettable. How come we have to keep re-introducing ourselves to those we’ve met over and over. Wish we had a trademark too.

Wouldn’t it be swell if there were a national requirement that everybody wear a big badge like conventioneers you see around town: “Hello my name is” in BIG BLACK LETTERS.

Of course there are some folks, Abe Lincoln for instance, who are so famous they’ve got trademarks to spare. For Honest Abe (note the trademark nickname) it’s not just the stovepipe hat but also that distinctive facial hair.

Lincoln’s beard, a style called a “chin curtain,” is notable for what it does not have, a moustache.

Which bring us to the object pictured here. The French website www.atypyk.com has invites all of us trademark-deprived nobodies to borrow renown moustaches from the past (5 ‘staches for $11.97).

Not only is there the playful Salvador Dali (shown here) but Clark Gable, Burt Reynolds and more. And these trademarks come emblazoned on a pencil.

Private Eyes: These cufflinks are looking at you

There’s no such thing as a private moment any more. Get used to it. Just a few years ago, you could change clothes at the gym, use the facilities at the toll road rest stop, pet the puppies at the animal shelter and feel reasonably secure that nobody—but you—was paying attention. Cheap, tiny cameras have changed all that. Now it's not just nannies who have to worry about being spied on by the camera in the teddy bear’s tummy. Big Bro is everywhere. The ever growing number of red-light camera intersections mean more and more heavy-footed drivers who’ve barreled through Chicago intersections are getting walloped with a $90 ticket. And those cop car dashboard cams? Well you can try to convince the judge that you only had two beers. But cue the tape and do the time. Fans of television’s “The Office” watched Angela, using a home-based cat cam, sit at her desk and keep an eye on her new feline, Precious Lady. Gee, what a surprise. Angela’s high-tech set up backfires. Unintended consequences erupt. The crazy cat lady races home to reprimand bad kitty and gets caught on her own cam as her co-workers watch her lick—ick—her feline friend. Let this be a lesson to us all—even those of us who don’t lick our pets. Cameras are everywhere, as close at hand as a cell phone. Remember, they can and will be used against us, no Miranda warning required. Almost as fast as you can push the "Record" button on whatever mini device you’ve acquired for not much cash, the pictures—especially if they show a drunken starlet, Octomom or a plane crash—can show up for the world to see on YouTube, TMZ, CNN At times, it seems that everyone is watching everyone. Not much you can do about except to make a cheeky statement about this uncomfortable state of affairs with these eyeball cufflinks. Made from doll eyes that really do open and shut, these were found eerily staring from a shelf at Hazel, a gift shop at 1902 W. Montrose Ave. ($14). Here’s looking at you, kid.

Read senior correspondent Ellen Warren’s shopping column every Thursday in the Tribune’s Play section and join the conversation at chicagotribune.com/ellenwarren.

Tribune photo by Bill Hogan

You can avoid nearly half of Chicago’s red-light camera intersections by staying off just five city thoroughfares. Got to pick just one to avoid? Make it Western Ave. (18). Others: Ashland Ave. (13); Cicero Ave. (10); Halsted St. (12) and Pulaski Rd. (9).

Dolls have been around since at least 2000 B.C. The oldest were well-dressed women. Baby dolls first appeared in London at The Great Exhibition in 1851.

Arty jewelry makes you a standout!

While channel surfing a few years back, an unforgettable image popped up on my TV screen. It was the venerable broadcast pioneer Barbara Walters on her show, The View, placing a pair of women’s underpants on her head—like a hat. The (start ital)why (end ital) of this remarkable act may be lost to the ages. But, besides showing that famous people sometimes do really ill-advised things, it underscored that there are many creative, alternative uses for everyday items. For example, the necklace shown here, fashioned out of aviator sunglass lenses by Paris-based designer Mehdi Kasraoui. ($95, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, mcachicagostore.org). Reached by phone, Kasraoui told me he started making these necklaces in 2001 while working in a New York optical shop. He’d become “obsessed” by the shape of the classic Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses he was selling there. Inspiration to use lenses for jewelry, he said, came from the Dada artists of the early 20th century who took “things that you use every day and made art from it.” “I consider myself now a neo-Dadaist. We make pieces of wearable art with contemporary objects,” he said. Wearing his necklace on a recent trip to the Spanish island of Ibiza, Kasraoui said, “I felt like Madonna.” People were following him down the street to inquire about this striking accessory that he began distributing widely in 2007 when he started his company, Clash. Maxine Weintraub, the jewelry buyer for the store at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, first spotted the necklace at a Paris emerging artists show and ordered them for the shop, and for herself. “I’ve worn it to concerts at Millennium Park and you’ll see people elbowing each other and pointing,” she said. “I just got back from New York and I got stopped on the street. If you want to attract attention, wear it. If you want to be left alone, leave the necklace at home. That’s all I can tell you.”

Tribune photo by Bill Hogan

A poll of 500 art experts named Dada artist Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” the most influential modern art work of all time. In 1917, Duchamp took a regular white porcelain urinal, signed it and put it on display. Pablo Picasso’s 1907 painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” came in second.

Gay weddings: Portia and Ellen are not alone!

Back in 1999, in her hometown of Dallas, Gretchen Hamm went shopping for something special for her
daughter Kathryn’s gay wedding ceremony. “You know how you think everything’s already been invented?” asks Hamm. But, even at the city’s leading gay bookstore, there were no same-sex wedding products. No cake toppers. No wedding albums. No guest books. No wedding invitations. Nothing to commemorate a two-brides (or two-grooms) wedding or commitment celebration. A little later, at her daughter’s wedding shower, Hamm was complaining about this lack of merchandise when one of the guests suggested she start her own business to fill the void. “I said, ‘You know, I think I will.’ ” And the rest, as they say, is Internet retail history. At first, when she went to gift shows trying to locate wedding vendors with gay-themed items she came home empty-handed. In order to offer same-sex wedding cake toppers, for instance, Hamm says, “I’d buy two pairs of bride-and-grooms” and then put the two grooms and two brides together: “Oh, they’ve got new partners!” she laughs. Now her gayweddings.com website has the largest selection of same sex cake toppers found anywhere, says Hamm, and a range of other products, including the hand-bound two brides album ($39.99) shown here. Business has never been better and now Kathryn Hamm has taken over the day-to-day operations, freeing her mom to devote more time to lobbying for equal rights for same-sex couples. Since the California Supreme Court lifted the ban on gay marriage in May, their online store’s sales to Californians increased 744 percent over the same period a year earlier. That’s no surprise to founder Gretchen Hamm who knew she was tapping into a potentially huge and underserved market when she started her business nearly a decade ago. One of her biggest sellers today is a custom-designed certificate with entwined wedding rings. “They’re so beautiful,” she says, “I’ve even given them to some straight couples!”

Tribune photo by Bonnie Trafelet

Since 1997, 10 states and Washington, D.C. have ok’d statewide recognition to same sex couples. Almost 25 percent of the U.S. population lives in a state with some form of legal recognition of gay couples.

The longest wedding dress train measured 4,468 feet 5.94 inches. It was unveiled on Feb. 18, 2007 by Andreas Evstratiou of Green Leaf, a shop in Paphos, Cyprus. By comparison, the train of one of the most famous wedding gowns in modern history, that worn by Lady Diana Spencer at her July 29, 1981 wedding to Prince Charles, measured a mere 25 feet.

Stick to it: A wallet made of duct tape

Some years ago, I gave the commencement address at Barat College. Soon afterwards, the college shut
down. But that’s another story. Back then, I asked the graduating seniors how many of them did not know what they were going to do with the rest of their lives. Almost everyone raised a hand. This event came to mind after I talked to Garrett Croft Stenson, a young entrepreneur who might just be the world expert on wallets. It is safe to say that this is not a career track he anticipated when he first started making billfolds ten years ago. The sleek model shown here is the result of a process that Stenson refined after crafting about 30,000 wallets by hand. He started on a kitchen table in Idaho in 1998 with money he earned by selling his blood (actually plasma). This silvery item has a modern Prada vibe, all the more captivating since the wallet is made from duct tape. Stenson, now 28, originally sold his duct tape wallets at weekend street fairs, which is where he “learned tons about the wallet customer” through one-on-one, very personal marketing research. “I probably had tens of thousands of conversations about wallets with people, every weekend for five years: ‘What kind of wallet do you carry?’ ‘What do you like about it?’ ” After so much cutting and folding, Stenson, said, “I can’t make these things any more.” So he used his daunting experience to launch the Duct Tape Wallet Kit ($20,myductbills.com) which is where the pictured wallet got started. As a result of his daunting hands-on know-how Stenson (and his brother, Tyler) also produced the most brilliantly easy-to-follow directions for any do-it-yourself product ever. (Are you listening VCR makers?) Stenson has moved on to create an artistic, collectible line of wallets (www.dbclay.com)made from an eco-friendly material his firm developed. About his new venture (and unexpected career path), Stenson says that now it’s all about the perfect wallet: “It was never really about the duct tape.”

Choosing the right gift for her

Now that Valentine’s Day is over, the pressure is off. Phew, you’ve got almost a year to try again to
answer that eternal question, "What do women want?"

Sure, you can let it slide and 11 months from now you’ll be right where you are now: Returning to the old standbys, flowers and chocolate. Hey, Mr. Romantic, did you buy them at the Jewel or Mobile Mart on your way home?

You’re better than that, aren’t you? Next year, show her you can think outside the (candy) box.

The bling pictured here could get you started. You probably won’t be spending this kind of cash on your sweetheart-- $1,540 for the black necklace or $1,395 for the pink (from Chicago’s Ikram, ikram.com). But we’re talking about a process here, so stay with me.

Start by showing her photos of objects like this one: avant-garde variations on a theme you think she might like. In this case it’s costume jewelry by a big name. That the design is Lanvin, the oldest French couture house (est. 1889) is a romantic plus.

This gets her talking about her likes and dislikes of jewelry, rhinestones, the offbeat, things French. Throughout the year, you’re casually trying out pictures of other items. Colors. Cashmere. Scents from those annoying sticky strips in magazines. You’re zeroing in on her preferences. (In this exercise, pictures of appliances, cookware or anything involving housework are very much discouraged.)

Whatever token you settle on for next Feb. 14, a little research on the Internet can spin the gift into a new stratosphere of amour.

Say you decide to give her a bottle of the Lanvin’s iconic perfume Arpege. You point to the golden figures on the bottle, Jeanne Lanvin and her daughter, Marguerite. You riff on how they remind you of the caring elegance of all that your Valentine does. She swoons. You swoop into catch her. Cupid himself couldn’t do it better.

Your totally awesome guide to buying fresh flowers

Posted by Ellen Warren 5:00 a.m. CDT

Who doesn't love flowers? But how to pick the very best ones? What to look for? How to choose. If you're like me, you're clueless. So I asked Kelly Uss (photo) who owns a great little flower shop in Logan Square to give me some pointers. "The earth laughs in flowers" is the slogan at Fleur, 3149 W. Logan Blvd.---the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

But if you spend a fortune on flowers and they're dead by morning you're not laughing. So learn everything you need to know about flowers and much more and share your tips for best floral bets. I need to hear from you.

About this blogLove it or hate it, we all do it: Shop for stuff. Maybe you think of it as a thrilling pastime. Or, you'd rather have your tonsils removed without anesthesia than spend time at a mall.
No matter where you come on the Shop-o-meter, this is the place for you. Got a great find? A gripe? A question? A rant? Shopping adviser Ellen Warren wants you to be part of the conversation. And read her Shopping Adviser column every Thursday in the At Play section and her Just One Thing essay on acquisitions every Sunday in the Tribune Magazine.